Head rest



June 6, 1961 E. A. PITTEROFF 2,987,113

HEAD REST Filed April 27, 1960 INVENTOR. ELMER A. PITTEROFF ATTORNEYS United States Patent C 2,987,113 HEAD REST Elmer A. Pitterolf, 245 Alice St, Pittsburgh 10, Pa. Filed Apr. 27, 1960, Ser. No. 25,042 3 Claims. (Cl. 155-175) This invention relates to a portable head rest and more particularly, to a collapsible device for maintaining a persons head in a comfortable position for facilitating rest and sleep while in a sitting position.

'In the past, cumbersome objects have been devised to provide a head rest for persons who endeavor to sleep while in a sitting position, such as automobile passengers and passengers on trains, planes, buses, etc. These known devices, however, have either been too complex to economically manufacture, or too cumbersome to be easily carried by the individual when not in use, and accordingly they have not been met with consumer acceptance.

When one is attempting to rest or sleep with his head in an upright position, such as when one is in a sitting position, the head has a tendency to sway from side to side or to uncomfortably fall forwardly with the chin lying on the chest. Such swaying movement disturbs any sleep which the individual may obtain, and the forward position of the head with the. chin on the chest produces a painfully uncomfortable stiff neck. Further, it is extremely difiicult to achieve optimum breathing with the head in such a forward position.

It thus has been an object of my invention to provide a device for adequately and comfortably supporting a persons head so as to facilitate sleep while in an upright position;

' A further .object of my invention has been to provide an inexpensive, simply constructed, and easily portable head rest;

An additional object of my invention has been to provide a collapsible head rest which, when not in use, may be collapsed into a compact, small size so that it may be conveniently carried in a pocket or purse;

A. further object of my invention has been to provide an adjustable head rest which not only adjusts longitudinally for the desired elevation of the head, but which also has a pivotally-adjustable base portion for adapting a comfortable seating thereof on the chest or breast bone of the wearer;

An additional object of my invention has been to provide a'collapsible head rest having a retractable strap adapted to be positioned about the neck of the wearer for retainably positioning the head rest upon the wearers chest or breast bone and under his chin, wherein the strap is resiliently urged inwardly to facilitate its retraction Within a base portion of the head rest when the head rest is not in use;

A still further object of my invention has been to provide a collapsible head rest having end portions which are adapted to be telescopically interlocked in a compact unit when the device is not in use;

These and further objects of my invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art from the following disclosure and accompanying drawings in which:

FIGURE 1 is a perspective view in eelvation of my improved head rest in its open position;

FIGURE 2 is a side elevational view in section of my improved head rest in its open position;

FIGURE 3 is a fragmental side elevational view in section illustrating a further embodiment of my invention;

FIGURE 4 is a side elevational view of the lower housing member; and,

FIGURE 5 is a perspective view of the lower body housing member showing the position of the strap there- Referring now to the drawings, and particularly FIG- URES 1 and 2, a head rest It? is composed of an upper housing 11 and a lower housing 12 connected together by an outwardly tensioned spring 13. The spring 13 is of suflicient strength and resiliency so as to, when in its expanded or opened position, maintain a substantially upright cylindrical shape of predetermined length and to adequately support the relaxed weight of a persons head. The upper housing 11 is provided with a chin rest 14- of resilient material. The chin rest is adjustably secured to the housing 11 by means of an adjustment screw 15, having an integral limit stop 16 on the end thereof, to prevent the head rest 14 from being inadvertently removed from the upper housing 11.

The upper housing 11 is substantially cup-shaped, having a disc-shaped top portion and a cylindrical side wall portion 17. A bayonet slot 18 is formed within the side wall portion 17. The top portion of the upper housing has a threaded bore 17a extending therethrough to receive the adjustment screw 15. -As shown in FIGURE 2, an annular disc-shaped flange portion 19 having a centrallydisposed threaded boss 19a, may be secured to an under surface of the top portion of the housing 11. The

threaded boss 19a is concentrically aligned with the threaded bore 17a and is adapted to threadably receive a lower portion of the adjustment screw 15. The disc-v shaped flange portion 19 is provided with a plurality of hooks or clips 20 for securing the upper portion of spring 13 in position within the housing 11.

As shown in FIGURE 3, the disc-shaped flange portion 19 may be replaced with an integral annular flange 19' formed integrally with the upper housing 11. When the upper housing is formed with the annular flange 19 in place of the disc-shaped flange member 19, the adjustment screw 15 is merely threaded within the threaded bore 17a which, if desired, may be strengthened with a bossed portion.

T he bottom portion of the lower housing 12 is provided with a soft face 21 of resilient material. The lower housing 12, like the upper housing 11, is also cup-shaped; however, an outer cylindrical side wall portion 22 of the lower housing 12 is adapted to slidably telescope over the cylindrical wall portion 17 of the upper housing 11 when collapsing the head rest to form a compact, easily portable unit. A catch pin or bayonet 23 is formed on an inner surface of the outer cylindrical wall 22 and is adapted to latchably project within the bayonet slot 18 formed in the cylindrical wall portion 17. When the housings are in their telescopic relationship with the pin 23 in the slot 18, the spring 13 is compressed inwardly, and the outward tension of the spring retains the pin in position within the slot, and accordingly locks the upper and lower housings together.

A slot 24 is formed in the outer cylindrical side wall 22 (see FIGURES 4 and 5). A strap or belt 25, having position holes 25', is resiliently mounted to an inner surface of the cylindrical wall portion 22 by means of a spring 26. The belt is adapted to pass outwardly through the slot 24. A hook 27 formed on the end of the belt 25 is adapted to project through a bore 28 formed in an opposed side wall portion of the cylindrical wall 22. A projection or pin 30 (see FIGURE 4) adjacent the slot 24 is adapted to project through a hole 25', formed in the strap 25, after the strap has been pulled out to the desired length.

A cup-shaped spring holder 33, having a ball socket 34, is pivotally secured to the lower housing 12 by means of a ball 31, positioned within the ball socket 34. A stem 32, formed integrally with the ball 31, is secured within a threaded bore formed in the bottom of the housing 12 and projects into the resilient material 21. The spring holder 33 is provided with a plurality of clips or hooks 35 for securing the lower portion of the spring 13 within the Patented June 6, 1951.

lower housing 12. The spring holder 33 has a cylindrical wall portion 36 which, in conjunction with the disc-shaped flange 19 or annular flange 19, retains a flexible cover 37 for the spring 13.

From the foregoing description, it will be readily apparent that when the head rest is not in use, the upper housing 11 may be telescopically positioned within the lower housing 12, and that the housings may then be mechanically locked together with the catch pin or bayonet Z3 compressibly retained within the bayonet slot 18 by the outward force of the spring 13. The strap or belt 25 will be retracted by the spring 26 and rolled up within the lower housing 12. When one desires to utilize the head rest 10, the upper and lower housings are merely compressed together and rotated to unlock the bayonet connection. The spring 13 will then expand the housings to their open position. The strap 25 may then be pulled outwardly against the tension of spring 26 to a desired length, and it is held in position by the projection 30 which is extended through a hole 25'. The strap is then positioned around the persons neck and the book 27 is placed within the bore 28. The resilient cushion 21 is positioned to rest upon the chest or breast bone of the wearer with the pivot 31, 34 compensating for the slope of the chest. The upper chin rest 14 is adjusted to a desired elevation by rotating adjustment screw 15, so that the chin of the wearer may comfortably rest thereon. When thus positioned, one may comfortably fall asleep while in an upright position, with the head in a supported position, so as to insure proper. breathing during sleep. To disassemble the expanded head rest, the hook 27 is removed from the bore 28, and the strap 25 is flexed to remove the projection 30 from a hole 25, and the spring tension will retract the strap 25 inwardly of the housing 12. The end of the belt is then positioned within the housing and the upper and lower housings are compressed together and rotated to lock them together in a compact unit which is of such a relatively small size that it may conveniently be carried on the person. Although the upper housing has been shown and described as telescopically interfittable within the lower housing, if desired, the upper housing may be made to telescopically fit over the lower housing merely by changing the relative diameters of the housings and positioning the bayonet pin on the outside of the lower housing.

Although I have described and illustrated my preferred embodiment, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various changes and modifications may be made hereto without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention, as set forth in the appended claims.

1. An improved head rest for comportably supporting a persons head comprising, a pair of opposed housing members, a spring connecting said housing members together; said spring being tensioned outwardly to, when in an extended position, maintain said housing members in a spaced-apart relationship; an adjustable chin rest threada-bly secured to one of said housing members, pivot means pivotally securing the other of said housing members to said spring, strap means retractably mounted within said other housing member for securing the head rest about the neck of the wearer, and means for compressing said spring and telescopically interlocking said housing members together against the resiliency of the spring.

2. A head rest for comfortably supporting a persons head as defined in claim 1 wherein said strap means comprises a flexible strap carried by an inner portion of said other housing member, a slot formed through a side portion of said other housing member for permitting said strap to extend outwardly therefrom, hook means on said strap for retaining said strap in a pre-set outwardlyextended position, and a resilient mounting connecting said strap to the inner portion of said other housing and urging said strap inwardly to facilitate the repositioning of the strap within said other housing member when not in use.

3. A head rest for comfortably supporting a persons head and facilitating sleep in a sitting-up position comprising, a pair of telescopically-interfittable end members, a spring connecting said end members together and when in its normally expanded operable position urging said end members into a pre-determined spaced-apart relationship, one of said end members being pivotally connected to said spring and having inwardly retractable strap means for securing the head rest about the neck of the wearer, an adjustable chin rest carried by said other end member, flange means within each of said end members circumscribing and retaining a portion ofisaid spring, a flexible cover member secured to said flan means and overlying said spring, and means for compressing said outwardly-expandedspring and locking said end members together in a telescopically-interfitting relationsh'i' "against the outward compression of said spring.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 537,908 Spencer Apr. 23, 18 1,934,991 Mendez Nov. 14, 1933 2,000,344 McClellan May 7, 1935 2,774,601 White -..Q. Dec. 18, 1956 2,820,455 Hall Jan. 21, 1953 

